On Sale: Apr 8, 2008
Page Count: 592 pages
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN-13: 9780786721023

$25.99

$33.99 CAD

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The presidential election of 1920 was one of the most dramatic ever. For the only time in the nation’s history, six once-and-future presidents hoped to end up in the White House: Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, and Theodore Roosevelt. It was an election that saw unprecedented levels of publicity — the Republicans outspent the Democrats by 4 to 1 — and it was the first to garner extensive newspaper and newsreel coverage. It was also the first election in which women could vote. Meanwhile, the 1920 census showed that America had become an urban nation — automobiles, mass production, chain stores, and easy credit were transforming the economy and America was limbering up for the most spectacular decade of its history, the roaring ’20s. Award-winning historian David Pietrusza’s riveting new work presents a dazzling panorama of presidential personalities, ambitions, plots, and counterplots — a picture of modern America at the crossroads.

Genre:

"A hugely fascinating episode in American history, told with insight and great humor, by an author in command of his subject."
Kirkus Review, starred review
"Absorbing...a broad, satisfying political and social history."
Publishers Weekly
"A terrific and fun read."
Bloomberg Radio
"[A] campaign like no other before or since. David Pietrusza... builds the suspense of the 1920 campaign so effectively that the reader easily suspends, for the moment, knowledge of the outcome, as if it were still about to happen."
The Weekly Standard
"A colorful, nonacademic account.... Most of all, there are characters. Pietrusza draws them sharply: the imperious Wilson, the obliging Harding, the dour and honest Coolidge and the ambitious and dissembling Franklin Roosevelt. Fans of political history will enjoy this book."
Seattle Times
"Fascinating and compelling.... Highly recommended."
Library Journal
"An ably popular treatment that fans of campaign histories will enjoy."
Booklist
"More than just a story of six men who either already had been president or would be, this is the story of America as it moved into the modern age."
Denver Post
"A very vivid portrait of each of these presidents."
Ann Compton, ABC News
"Sweeping and original."
The History Book Club
"In 1920: The Year of Six Presidents, writer David Pietrusza shows the right way to pull together disparate characters into a coherent narrative...this book portrays an America that has stopped looking backward and has begun to craft a new country and a new world role."
Washington Times

David Pietrusza

About the Author

David Pietrusza has written or edited ore than thirty books. His previous book, Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series, was nominated for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award in the Best Fact Crime category. An expert on the 1920s, Pietrusza has served on the Board of Directors of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation. He lives in upstate New York.

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